Elounda, Greece Travel Blog
- Annika Kuz
- Sep 30, 2022
- 4 min read
Let's talk about dream vacations for a hot sec... Crete is the place to go. Crete is a fairly big island
off the southern coast of Greece. This was the end-all and be all of vacations. As a refresher (or if you haven't had the chance to read my Italy travel blog), I traveled Europe for 11 days, in May 2022, with a group of 18 family members and friends. Six of those days were spent in the beautiful seaside village of Elounda.
While there, we stayed in Pascal Lutz's fabulous Art and Emotion Villas . He made a wonderful host and was sure to tell us about all of the best restaurants in the small town. The property is up several steep hills, which were almost too much for our small manual rental cars! But once up the hills, the villas comfortably accommodated our large group, with lots of separate spaces for privacy, and many shared spaces to encourage community. The villas had two infinity pools and a hot tub--there were rooms I didn't even see or knew existed during my trip! Pictured above is me sitting on the edge of a pool overlooking the town behind me.
I could have remained in the villa the whole trip, and probably not gotten sick of it, but I absolutely had to venture into town often. The trek up and down the hills to the villas was a work out that left our feet blistered and calves sore. Each hike was completely worth it. The locals were the friendliest folks out there, and were eager to invite you in and enjoy their hospitality. When shopping or dining, they often gifted you with small tokens or desserts. The food and drink were sublime. Something about the way they prepared their food (most likely with extremely fresh ingredients), didn't leave me feeling weighed down after eating. It felt like some of the cleanest eating I had done in a while, even though I was indulging in pasta almost every night.
On our third day there, it was time for the big event. My dad got married on a beautiful Grecian day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, literally. The ceremony was at the villas. It was a beautiful and emotional ceremony and I was crying under my sunglasses before I even knew it. The video above was edited by one of my now step-cousins, and perfectly captures the essence of the day.
After the ceremony, we took a refreshing boat ride over to Spinalonga, an island that houses an old leper colony. (Pictured behind the boat to the left, and on the island below.) When we exited the boat, the other tourists recognized we were a wedding party and
applauded when my dad and his new wife stepped onto the island.
We walked the entire island and admired the beautiful, abandoned architecture. We were still in our wedding garb so, by the time I got back to the boat, my heels (purchased for a high school dance, they had done their time) were absolutely destroyed. If you take the jaunt to Spinalonga, I highly recommend sneakers :).
It took a day or so to recover from the wedding, but soon we were back at it! A couple people went diving and snorkeling in a nearby town, and a few of us drove an hour and a half to the town of Heraklion. We visited the ancient Palace of Knossos, the
mythological site that is said to have been on top of the Labyrinth with the Minotaur. If you know me, you know I was obsessed with all things Greek Mythology as a kid, so I was maybe freaking out just a little bit!
It got hot the further away from the sea we went, so I definitely recommend an outfit that breathes well and a hat to keep the sun away! (I clearly forgot my hat.)
We ventured 45 minutes inland and up mountains, and then back down mountains to visit the Psychro Cave, which is where the ancient god Zeus was born in Greek Mythology. It is a very steep hike up the mountain. There are donkey rides available for purchase to go up the mountain, but only children are allowed to ride the donkeys. Once we approached the top, it was time to take the climb down into the cave. There was a natural eerie green light that I was so glad my phone's camera could capture.
On our drive back to Elounda, we spotted many old windmills, which we were told by a local, that they used to be used for olive oil and other grain-related production. Another neat roadside attraction was something a bit harder to spot--mini churches and mini replicas of houses--and I unfortunately didn't think to take any photos of the many we saw there. They cropped up everywhere, along side streets, in towns, on mountains, everywhere. I was so curious I had to look it up
one day. They are built to remember the victims of roadside accidents, or sometimes just built as a signal of hope or worship, according to this MessyNessy blog post.
One night a few of my step cousins and I decided to take a cab to the nearby town of Agios Nikolas to try out their club scene. We told our cab driver to drop us off at wherever he felt we would have the best time. It was mainly locals at the clubs and so some folks did look at us like we were out of place, but ultimately, we came to dance, and nobody had a problem with that! The music was delicious and the drinks sparkled (literally came with sparklers), One thing about the locals was they like to come out late and stay out late. Thankfully by this point I had caught up with my jet lag, but I am not cut out to be awake past midnight, y'all!
Saying goodbye to this lovely town and its people was not the easiest thing to do. We had spots that we frequented and folks we looked forward to seeing. Please enjoy the following video filmed by Jackie Bishop (@greatlakesdancer on IG) of me skating on our villa's pool deck!
Thank you for reading! Look out for my next post, which will hopefully be about our time in Athens. Please subscribe!
Comments